Rating: 
Summary: Best scanner available
Review: After reading the reviews on the 800C and given my slow typing from textbooks, I felt confident enough to buy one from the distributor when Amazon was out of stock. Based on the reviews on ZDnet and PCMag (reviews are hard to find and reliable net purchase sites more so), and my initial 3 day trial, the CPen 800C has proven an effective pen scanner. Bear in mind I am not a techie.As a law student with lots of readings and time consuming case summaries (notes) to type out, this product has afforded me more time for social events rather than living in the library or glued to a computer. I do not use the dictionary function or any other features so as not to tie up memory or processor speed (I could be misguided on this point). The 800C model came with the combined power adaptor and dowload serial cable, leather case, instruction manual and a software CD. Initially I was confused by their web site's offer for the USB adaptor. The latter is crucial if you are using a new computer that has done away with serial ports, offering only USB ports. If so, then you may need the USB adaptor. Although I had difficulty processing my order on the CPen recommended US site, it was either due to my foreign credit card or some detail with my Canadian "home" address. Kevin, from customer service, was apologetic and assured me my order would push through. To his credit, he even called me back at my number so I didn't have to pay long distance charges. My net order arrived at a US designated address within 3 days via UPS with the correct billings on my credit card. Kevin continues to help me trouble shoot via e-mail and has been most helpful and patient with my attempt to get the CPen working with Mac OSX. The 800C can indeed scan approximately 15 cm of text at one go. Bear in mind that after 15 cm of scanning text, a pause of a few seconds is needed for the processor to translate the text onto the display. If you scan more text while the processor is still translating, the pen will beep to alert you that it's still processing the previous text. When scanning words or phrases selectively, it's virtually instantaneous. Accuracy depends on the user's skill and care in scanning. While it is not difficult to use, the CPen web site is correct in stating the scanning should be with the least possible amount of red light escaping from the tip of the pen. This can be learned with a few attempts. To start a new sentence or a new paragraph, just tap the retractable sensor at the tip of the pen once and twice accordingly. Before I read the QnA section of the CPen web site, my scanning accuracy was about 65-70%. Bear in mind legal cases have numerous names, brackets, and abbreviations for the processor to figure out. However I am happy the CPen has scanned correctly most of the Latin words in my readings. I would estimate the accuracy now to be 85-95% range, again, depending on my varying care in scanning and the complex names and abbreviations. Normal sentences can come out perfect. Bear in mind I am scanning from good to high quality text, not poor print. To start a new file, I just scan the text heading for the name of the folder. I still read and highlight my books to make sure I don't end up scanning too much or repeated case decisions/analysis before I use the CPen. The more purposeful scanning definitely increases the accuracy of the text. Contrary to some warnings, my 800C DOES scan yellow, orange, purple and pink high lighted text (Mon Ami Handy Highlighter and Sanford Accent high lighters). Blue and green produce illegible errors. EDIT ON A COMPUTER. Transferring of text is also easy, either through the IR feature or the serial cable. Personally, the IR is much faster. Initially I empathized with those who could not download or transfer their data. The problems were with the notebook I was using and not the CPen. For trouble shooting, go to CPen.com, click "Support" and choose "QnA". The problems I encountered required the turning on of the Notebook's IR feature, or to get an unused communications port for the serial cable to work. If your notebook requires re-installation of the IR software, then I certainly hope you have the original CD! The "QnA" is a very useful page and I've solved my download problems on the PC. I have been successful using the IR transfer on a Toshiba and an Acer notebook. Serial cable transfer with the Acer was also successful. I did not try on the Toshiba but don't see why it wouldn't work if you read the QnA page on the web. The rest is just drag and drop onto your PC for word processor editing. My challenge now is to get it to work with my Mac G4. I am told the download software does not work with OS X, but since the machine comes with Mac Classic, OS 9.2, I am awaiting the arrival of a USB adaptor cable (and do check with cable suppliers if their product is compatible with scanners or buy it directly from CPen) to hook up with the serial cable as the G4 doesn't have an IR port. The Mac OS downloads state the software works with OS8 - OS9.1. I'll post another note if and when I can get it to work with OS 9.2 Given my slow typing from textbooks, and if one consults the CPen website to learn how to better use it, the CPen 800C is a great handheld scanner. It is also very useful for library research, recording the research maps of statutes and regulation history, without having to jot down what or where you've been looking. If you do not need the other functions, and they could possibly work well if you took the time to learn it, I am confident you will find this product very satisfactory.
Rating: 
Summary: Practical, effective and a time saver 5 Oct 02
Review: After reading the reviews on the 800C and given my slow typing from textbooks, I felt confident enough to buy one from the distributor when Amazon was out of stock. Based on the reviews on ZDnet and PCMag (reviews are hard to find and reliable net purchase sites more so), and my initial 3 day trial, the CPen 800C has proven an effective pen scanner. Bear in mind I am not a techie. As a law student with lots of readings and time consuming case summaries (notes) to type out, this product has afforded me more time for social events rather than living in the library or glued to a computer. I do not use the dictionary function or any other features so as not to tie up memory or processor speed (I could be misguided on this point). The 800C model came with the combined power adaptor and dowload serial cable, leather case, instruction manual and a software CD. Initially I was confused by their web site's offer for the USB adaptor. The latter is crucial if you are using a new computer that has done away with serial ports, offering only USB ports. If so, then you may need the USB adaptor. Although I had difficulty processing my order on the CPen recommended US site, it was either due to my foreign credit card or some detail with my Canadian "home" address. Kevin, from customer service, was apologetic and assured me my order would push through. To his credit, he even called me back at my number so I didn't have to pay long distance charges. My net order arrived at a US designated address within 3 days via UPS with the correct billings on my credit card. Kevin continues to help me trouble shoot via e-mail and has been most helpful and patient with my attempt to get the CPen working with Mac OSX. The 800C can indeed scan approximately 15 cm of text at one go. Bear in mind that after 15 cm of scanning text, a pause of a few seconds is needed for the processor to translate the text onto the display. If you scan more text while the processor is still translating, the pen will beep to alert you that it's still processing the previous text. When scanning words or phrases selectively, it's virtually instantaneous. Accuracy depends on the user's skill and care in scanning. While it is not difficult to use, the CPen web site is correct in stating the scanning should be with the least possible amount of red light escaping from the tip of the pen. This can be learned with a few attempts. To start a new sentence or a new paragraph, just tap the retractable sensor at the tip of the pen once and twice accordingly. Before I read the QnA section of the CPen web site, my scanning accuracy was about 65-70%. Bear in mind legal cases have numerous names, brackets, and abbreviations for the processor to figure out. However I am happy the CPen has scanned correctly most of the Latin words in my readings. I would estimate the accuracy now to be 85-95% range, again, depending on my varying care in scanning and the complex names and abbreviations. Normal sentences can come out perfect. Bear in mind I am scanning from good to high quality text, not poor print. To start a new file, I just scan the text heading for the name of the folder. I still read and highlight my books to make sure I don't end up scanning too much or repeated case decisions/analysis before I use the CPen. The more purposeful scanning definitely increases the accuracy of the text. Contrary to some warnings, my 800C DOES scan yellow, orange, purple and pink high lighted text (Mon Ami Handy Highlighter and Sanford Accent high lighters). Blue and green produce illegible errors. EDIT ON A COMPUTER. Transferring of text is also easy, either through the IR feature or the serial cable. Personally, the IR is much faster. Initially I empathized with those who could not download or transfer their data. The problems were with the notebook I was using and not the CPen. For trouble shooting, go to CPen.com, click "Support" and choose "QnA". The problems I encountered required the turning on of the Notebook's IR feature, or to get an unused communications port for the serial cable to work. If your notebook requires re-installation of the IR software, then I certainly hope you have the original CD! The "QnA" is a very useful page and I've solved my download problems on the PC. I have been successful using the IR transfer on a Toshiba and an Acer notebook. Serial cable transfer with the Acer was also successful. I did not try on the Toshiba but don't see why it wouldn't work if you read the QnA page on the web. The rest is just drag and drop onto your PC for word processor editing. My challenge now is to get it to work with my Mac G4. I am told the download software does not work with OS X, but since the machine comes with Mac Classic, OS 9.2, I am awaiting the arrival of a USB adaptor cable (and do check with cable suppliers if their product is compatible with scanners or buy it directly from CPen) to hook up with the serial cable as the G4 doesn't have an IR port. The Mac OS downloads state the software works with OS8 - OS9.1. I'll post another note if and when I can get it to work with OS 9.2 Given my slow typing from textbooks, and if one consults the CPen website to learn how to better use it, the CPen 800C is a great handheld scanner. It is also very useful for library research, recording the research maps of statutes and regulation history, without having to jot down what or where you've been looking. If you do not need the other functions, and they could possibly work well if you took the time to learn it, I am confident you will find this product very satisfactory.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect note taker with a few flaws
Review: As a graduate student, I am constantly reading. Each week it seems that there are endless chapters of textbook material, and only a very finite amount of time to digest it all. This is compounded by the fact that I am constantly traveling for business, and regularly work fourteen-hour days. So what I needed was a way to read the material once, and move on. I don't have the time to go through the text once with a yellow highlighter and then follow it up a few days later to review what I thought was important. In reading one of those magazines that the airlines put in the "seat pocket in front of you" I saw an ad for the C Pen, and I was sold. There are several benefits to the C Pen including size, durability, accuracy, and efficiency. The size is a little larger than three regular pens in a tight bundle. It does take a little getting used to, but I found myself merrily scanning in no time flat. While it feels very light, and is made mostly of plastic, the C Pen is surprisingly durable. I also believe that if the C Pen was made of anything heavier then your hand would get tired very quickly. The bundle I bought included a case for the C Pen with convenient Velcro latch. It seems like it could break easily, but I've had a few spills and mine keeps scanning. The accuracy of the device is pretty amazing. It can scan up to five inches of text per second, and for the most part will only mess up on occasion. I've found that larger font sizes tend to give it more problems, as well as fonts that are sans serif. Even single-line mathematical formulas were no problem for the C Pen. The 800C model includes a built in rechargeable battery that is well worth the extra cash. It takes about an hour and a half to fully charge the battery, and it will merrily scan for countless hours. In my experience, I've found that I can scan for about eight hours before needing to recharge the C Pen. As well, in terms of efficiency, the IR capability works like a charm. I can tell the C Pen that I want to beam the last chapter of content to my Palm, and a few seconds later I'm done. This is a great little feature. I was curious about how much data the C Pen would actually store, and I have yet to hit my limit. I started off scanning very lightly; only where I thought it was necessary in order to save memory. As time progressed and I saw the memory I had left I started scanning even more. I have scanned in seven chapters of notes in a very large and long-winded Economics book, and I still have more space than I know what to do with. Unfortunately, some of the C Pen's pluses also make for its minuses. Perhaps my biggest complaint with the C Pen is that it is so precise. When scanning a line of text, I've found it better to just scan the entire line, even if the sentence I'm after stops half way through. It's very hard to scan anything other than an entire line without spillover into the next sentence. The C Pen includes all sorts of additional applications that potentially give it PDA functionality - but let's get real; you're not going to use the C Pen as an all in one PDA. Don't charge me for applications I'll probably never use - especially if you're going to include IR connectivity to my Palm device anyways. As well, when I beam content to my Palm, I cannot edit it on the Palm. The content must be transferred to my computer first. This seems a little limiting, and I'm not sure why C Tech decided to put this in place. You can use the C Pen as a pen (C Write), and it will recognize what you are writing assuming that you are sticking to their character script. This is very similar to what most Palm users will be used to, but it's not the same Graffiti strokes, which means you'll have to learn two sets. Likewise, if you scanned content with errors, and you want to correct it using the C Write feature, you'll have to navigate several menus to get there, making this a time consuming task. So if you're looking for a fancy new digital way to scan content, this is a great tool - though it has some problems in terms of usability, but it does what it's supposed to, which is scan in text.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Service and Product
Review: As a research historian preparing for law school I found the C-Pen 800 invaluable. The only thing better than the pen itself was the customer service and care from the folks at Solutionworks. Especial thanks to Kevin for all the tech support for someone who is a technological barbarian (that would be me!) The pen itself takes a bit of getting used to. At first I tried scanning very slow and deliberately; this was a mistake. The C-Pen likes a faster scan rate across the page. Using yellow highlighter actually seemed to help, as did the calibration feature. I personally preferred using the manual rather than the automatic trigger due to the curviture of the page in thicker books. In the automatic mode if the trigger lost contact with the page part of a word would be broken off. In manual mode I seemed to have greater accuracy. Likewise I found using it without the cord, and then transferring data to be faster. The cord always seemed to be in the way, and at the speed that the C-Pen likes for accurate scanning it was a nuisance. For someone who needs to extract key pieces of information quickly and conveniently this is a great tool. Doug
Rating:
Summary: Try it, you'll like it
Review: Comments: --Easy to use for a female nontechie (me) --Very accurate (did 1/2 8x11 page with 1 error: p=D) --Scans foot notes accurately --Easy to edit, either one character or more --Highlights latest entry for easy deletion and re-entry --Rechargable --Very easy to connect to PC --And it's FUN!! :-) *** One small glitch--could not beam it to any Palm Pilot PDA. :-(
Tried 3 different PDA's. No go.
Rating:
Summary: C-pen 800 perfect answer for research reference documents
Review: For our research projects, we needed a device that would capture reference information from numerous sources and locations. The C-pen does this well and delivers everything as promised. It's easy to learn, a pleasure to use, and esthetically pleasing. The accompanying tutorial and web access resources are as well thought out as the c-pen device. Pen-to-host transfer speed is good and the translation accuracy percent is very high over a wide range of publication source documents. I thought it was a good buy ... and now I see it can be obtained for substantially less
Rating:
Summary: An incredible product!
Review: I am a graduate student and as such spend endless hours reading academic journals and having to type up references for my papers. Also, often I find an article that I only need a few key points from, or that the article is worthless but there is one reference worth retrieving.. This hand held OCR seemed perfect for my uses. I first bought the QuickLink Pen by WizCom. It is a good product, but the accuracy was dissapointing on the very small fonts that the reference lists are usually in. I returned it with hopes that the new revision (C-pen 800 *c*) would live up to the promise of better OCR. I don't care too much about the PDA type features, those are only bonuses for me. The main thing I wanted was accurate OCR. It really blew away the QuickLink in this department, as well as ease of use (the c-pen is more intuitive). I can scan the very smallest print (I assume 5 point, which is the smallest this or as far as I know any pen can read). But where the quicklink pen gave me many errors, the 800c works much better. Of course, none of these are flawless. But from my experience with two different pens, the C-pen 800c is much better for OCR, particularly with small fonts! It is also a little smaller, has rechargable batteries, and matches the quicklink now with serial and IR connections. I am VERY happy with the c-pen, and if you pull bits and pieces or references often, it can save a LOT of time! Very impressed..
Rating:
Summary: rapid and accurate text acquisition
Review: I bought the C-Pen 600C which has reasonable features, including C-dictionary. The most impressive performance has been the rapid and accurate text acquisition. I use this device to scan Swedish text. I have noticed very few OCR errors and the processing speed is rapid. I purchased an additional SWE-ENG-SWE dictionary which downloaded quickly to the pen even with the (traditionally) slow serial connection options. I have not tried beaming data to my Palm or laptop, because I couldn't figure out the series of commands to accomplish this. Also, it is difficult to highlight/save/copy/archive data on the pen given the somewhat complex series of clicks and layering of interfaces, but I think it is do-able if you are motivated. I read criticism about the inaccuracy of the scanner, but have not experienced this personally. I am impressed with the processor speed. My purchase included a free dictionary. It is the Webster's English dictionary. I would have preferred an access code for a dictionary of choice since I have no use for Webster's given I use the C-Pen for foreign language translation. Overall I am very happy with the purchase. Tom
Rating:
Summary: c-pen 800
Review: I bought the c-pen 800 a few weeks ago and what a great product it is. I have also tested the Quicklink from Wizcom and c-pen is far better (faster, more accurate and more features). Everyone at my work wants to purchase one but Amazon has been out of stock since!
Rating: 
Summary: C Pen 800C needs more work but has alot of good features
Review: I bought the C-Pen 800 so I could scan pages of technical material then transfer the files to my Palm VIIx. The accuracy is not that good and it takes alot of work, so far, to get something that is even readable. Still, I like the idea of the pen, and what it can do, more than the pen itself. The storage function is an unexpected bonus as I can beam PQA's and other files to the C-Pen as storage then beam them back to the Palm when needed. If the C-Pen is the best of the breed, as these reviews suggest..then the rest of the pen scanners must be really awful. Also, communications with the PC using the Extend Irda Adapter, which is a product sold by C-Pen (but actually made by Extended Systems) does not seem to work for communications with the C-Pen (though the QuickBeam suite does work) which does not allow me to edit files on the PC or update the software. So this product is a really good idea, seems to appeal to some more than others, probably is the best on the market...and shows promise but it still falls short.
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